Eric was presented the Point Impact Award by Cheyenne at the event celebrating future LGBTQ leaders, honor our champions, and support Point Scholars from around the nation.

“Huge thanks to the @PointFoundation for the incredible work they do for #LGBTQ youth, creating scholarships and leaders,” Erictweeted. “And thanks to my friend @cheyennejackson for his beautiful words ❤️”

He admits in a poignant new essay for THR that he tried “to affect and outsmart vulnerability,” but ultimately accepted it.

“Where we expected angry villagers wielding pitchforks, we confronted a sea of puppies and rainbows,” Zeke wrote. “Nick [Adams, director of GLAAD's Transgender Media Program] and I shook our heads in disbelief. We’d never seen a trans story responded to with such overwhelming outrage toward the wrongdoer and sympathy toward the wronged. Typically, trans victims of crimes far worse than what I endured are ridiculed and the perpetrators let off scot-free.”

“I believe it begins with having the fortune to be part of a show and a network committed to telling my story on my terms,” Zeke wrote. “I don’t lavish praise upon Jeff Probst because his dimples make me swoon, I do so because his actions proved him to be every bit the man I believed him to be.”

Zeke ended the piece with, “To the trans person who enters the spotlight next, I hope you get it as good as I did. To the person after, I hope you are met with utter indifference.”

After the merge feast and back at camp, the other tribe members were curious about what happened with Jeff Varner‘s exit.

“I’ll tell the Varner story,” Zeke says. “We’re not five minutes in [to tribal council] and Varner takes it upon himself to say, ‘Zeke is deceiving you because what Zeke is not telling you is that Zeke is transgender.’ I am. It happened in a way that I wasn’t crazy about. I’m like all of you, forever hanged and forever evolved by my experience on Survivor.”

While trying to fight to stay in the game during tribal council, Varner told his tribe that Zeke was capable of deception as he had not told them he is transgender yet.

Varner, who is gay, apologized for his actions during the episode and showed deep remorse for the pain he caused. He has expressed remorse for his mistake in media interviews this week as well.

“After the tribal council scene in last night’s Survivor was filmed, we consulted with Zeke Smith and with GLAAD in advance of the broadcast, including the issue of how Zeke would tell his story after the episode aired,” the network said in a statement (via THR). “This is his second consecutive season on Survivor. From his first season through the current edition, we have always been guided by the principle that this is his story to tell, and it remains so.”

“We support how Jeff Probst and the producers handled a very sensitive situation and marvel at the grace Zeke exhibited under extraordinary circumstances,” the network added.
“We have also respect for how Jeff Varner has expressed remorse for his mistake, both in the episode and in his subsequent dialogue with the media. In the end, we believe this episode, accompanied by Zeke‘s own remarkable writing and speaking on the subject, has provided an unexpected but important dialogue about acceptance and treating transgender people with respect.”